How to Train Your Villain with *Robin Hood'*s Oscar Isaac

Oscar Isaac as King John, right, with Lea Seydoux as Isabella of Angouleme.

When audiences line up Friday to see Sir Ridley Scott’s latest re-telling of the oft-retold Robin Hood legend, no one’ll be shocked to find Russell Crowe as the aforementioned man in tights. However, some may be surprised to find a fresh face in the iconic role of Robin Hood’s arch-nemesis, King John. To breathe new life into this classic villain, Scott tapped up-and-comer Oscar Isaac, probably best known to American audiences for playing Joseph, the literal original godfather, in Catherine Hardwicke’s The Nativity Story. Without giving too much away, we assure you he steals the spotlight in his scenes, and he should soon be even better known to American audiences thanks to upcoming roles in Alejandro Amenabar’s Agora and Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch. Recently, the Juilliard-trained Isaac shared with us his secrets for how to play a deliciously devilish villain with one of cinema’s foremost action filmmakers dropping napalm on your head. The secret ingredients? A dollop of Robert Plant and a dash of Richard Nixon.

John Lopez: So, shooting with Sir Ridley Scott is something for the diary, huh?

Oscar Isaac: Absolutely, particularly this one. I did Body of Lies as well, with Russell and Ridley, but I never even got a chance to meet him then. It was a smaller role in a much, much smaller movie, and then to go from that and develop a relationship with Ridley and have him come and say, “Hey, be the King of England…”

That’s huge, and a little unexpected because you’re, well, Hispanic?

Yes. I grow up in the states in Miami, but I was born in Guatemala and my father’s Cuban, and in Body of Lies, I played an Iraqi.

So, the mindset could easily have been, “He can’t play the King of England, he’s Guatemalan.”

Exactly. Just for that alone I’m so indebted to [Ridley]. On top of that, it’s such a huge role—it could easily go to a movie star. I definitely said to him, “Look, Ridley, I know you went to bat for me” and he goes, “Yeah, I did—you better be good!” and I was like, “I will, man, I will!”

Your performance is so fun. How did you prepare for this?

Thank you! I read a whole lot, everything I could find about him, and I talked to Ridley. I would come up with some ideas and pass them by him and he would give me more ideas, and we sort of worked together to figure out who he was and how he saw the world. Then from that point on, I just thought of who he reminds me of and made parallels.

Were there any current-day inspirations?

I ended up falling on this idea of Richard Nixon crossed with Robert Plant. You know, this kind of hedonist, someone that loves the attention and has this almost rock-and-roll sensibility mixed with someone who has a mind for affairs of state.

A glam-rock Machiavelli, huh?

Exactly. Playing with that, the status thing, the insecurities. And then finding a wit. Both of us talked about how he was intelligent, and a good way of showing a lot of intelligence is when you see someone has a wit.

King John’s one of the funniest characters in the movie—you just wait for him to come back on screen and make another juicy comment.

Well, what was cool was Ridley was so open to try stuff, so there was a lot of room to improvise. Even though it was this huge scale, there were twelve cameras, and hundreds of extras, you never felt you had to get something right. I could try stuff, and I wasn’t afraid to ask, “How did that work,” and [Ridley]’d be like, “Nah, try something else” and I’d be like, “Cool.”

Wow, you can do improv on a Ridley Scott film?

I mean, not whole monologues, but you know, a little line or two. There was a line when we first ride up in Wales and we see the French coming, I say, “That’s a lot of French,” which was kind of improvised. We thought that was funny, so I kept doing it, [and] it ended up being in the movie.

It’s got to be fun playing the villain.

It’s a lot of fun. I mean, [Robin Hood co-star] Mark Strong has had a whole career playing villains. The thing is they’re usually the coolest characters to play. I think there’s a lot less concern that you have to show all these likable aspects of them—a villain doesn’t always have to be liked, so you end up getting to show a lot more facets of a person.

Did Mark Strong give you any tips on playing a villain?

Not so much on playing a “villain” cause the idea is you don’t want to play a villain; you want to play him as human as possible. So, watching Mark in the movie, there’s always this nobility to him and he underplays things and he has a lot of subtlety. Watching him do that, you think, “O.K., I guess I don’t have to twirl my moustache.”

There is a complexity to your take on King John, he’s just not a straight out-and-out villain.

Well, I wanted people to understand his point of view. He actually does have a valid point of view—the reality of it is that his brother was a much worse king. He was the one that bankrupted the country! He spent, I think, six months out of his ten-year reign in England, and so that’s the idea I got behind … In fact, it was funny, in the end, I felt more like a good guy because in the beginning he’s very insecure, angry, and unsure, and by the end, you kind of see his regality finally. Suddenly, he’s not trying as much as he just is.

It’s funny, many villains just are evil, like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Here you see King John come into his own, asserting his villainess.

Oh yeah. I think that’s because I come from a theater background and I remember working on Macbeth—he starts off as a hero and then he devolves into this beastly villain. [King John] starts off as a weakling and then asserts himself by the end.

So, is Shakespearean training the best training for making a great villain?

I think so. I think Shakespeare really got it. He was the first one to introduce psychology to villains and give them a real point of view. That’s why Mark Strong’s so awesome!

The best villains seem to have this component of them that you love or identify with in a way.

That’s the idea. If you make it relatable enough, it feels a little scarier because, One: if they have self-awareness and they’re still doing these things, it’s really freaky. And, Two: it also means that you could do [those things], too. It’s like getting really close to fire.

Were you a Robin Hood fan before this movie?

I loved the Disney cartoon and I was a huge Peter Ustinov fan. I remember watching Spartacus while I did Agora—another movie that’s coming out on the 28th!—so I was watching Spartacus because it has a similar time period. Suddenly, Peter Ustinov comes on screen and you can’t help thinking, “This guy could’ve been on The Office.” He’s so funny and real and strange. Then, I was watching Robin Hood [the Disney cartoon] and I realized [the voice of King John] was Peter Ustinov and I’m like, “I love this guy!” In fact, I tried to put a few little Peter Ustinov moments in there. I think at one point I call Eleanor “Mummy,” just like in the cartoon.

Peter Ustinov voices King John, left, in Disney's Robin Hood, 1973.

The Disney cartoon inspiring Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. I can’t think of two more different types of filmmaking. What’s shooting a Ridley Scott extravaganza like?

It is an incredibly efficient machine. There’s ten or twelve cameras constantly shooting, there’s two helicopters, cranes, a crazy crew, hundreds of guys, hundreds of extras, but there’s not a second that’s wasted, which is really fascinating. I’ve done other movies where there’s just one camera and so much time goes by, but here… it just moves and moves and moves and he gets done by sundown. It’s wild because you’re also watching this artist at work, but instead of a canvas he has a wall of monitors. Instead of a palette, he has a walkie-talkie.

And instead of a paintbrush, he has weapons-grade ordnance.

Exactly. He’ll look at the monitor and say, “Let’s put in a hundred horses here,” and behind the scenes a hundred horses are being wrangled. Or, “Eh, let’s put that boat on fire,” and a helicopter comes and drops napalm on the boat.

How do you keep your head in such terrifyingly efficient chaos?

You just push all that fear way deep down and let it come out like a waterfall afterward—it also helps to have a wife who can listen to you be like, “Oh my god” for three months. There was this moment when I was up on a hill in the middle of Wales and I’m on my horse in my gold chain mail and on the left of me is Russell Crowe, on the right is William Hurt, behind me there’s a hundred knights in armor, in front of me is Ridley Scott with a bullhorn, and down below him are hundreds of ships invading—and all I’m thinking is, “What am I doing here?”

I think I remember seeing that moment on film. Is it where your character wants to charge into battle and looks totally unprepared for the realities of war?

That’s the moment.

So, what we’re seeing on King John’s face is what it feels like to be thrust into the spotlight on a Ridley Scott film?

Yes!

Did you get to keep anything from set?

Well, I asked them, “Can I keep my sword,” and they told me, “We’ll find out,” but then I didn’t get an answer, so [on the last day of shooting] I just kind of grabbed it and ran. Then, I get a phone call from the producer and he’s like, “Oscar, you can’t take the sword.” And I’m like, “Oh, I thought that…”—“No.” So, I had to give the sword back.